Before
he was the international man of mystery, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
alumnus Mike Myers made the jump to the big screen with WAYNE’S WORLD
($30). Not straying too far from the nest, WAYNE’S WORLD takes
the SNL characters portrayed by Myers and Dana Carvey and allows
them break out of the confinement of a single set for a big screen comedy
adventure. However, the difference between WAYNE’S WORLD and a
bunch of other SNL screen projects is the fact that this movie is genuinely
funny and prove to be a huge success at the box office.

In
WAYNE’S WORLD, Myers and Carvey embody Wayne Campbell and Garth
Algar- two suburban heavy metal head-bangers that still live at home with
their parents. I think most people from my generation either know or went
to school with guys like Wayne and Garth, with one small difference- Wayne
and Garth star in Wayne’s World, their own public access
television show produced out of their parent’s basement. The aforementioned
public access television show is at the center of WAYNE’S WORLD
the movie, with its hosts making the jump to the big time, when oily producer
Benjamin Oliver (Rob Lowe) expresses an interest in putting their show
on a real cable network. As Wayne’s profession fortunes see an upturn,
so does his personal life, when he meets a beautiful rock goddess named
Cassandra (Tia Carrere), whom is determined to make his. For the most
part WAYNE’S WORLD is a good-natured film that is filled with bits
of insanely brilliant comedy. Myers and Carvey really shine in the material,
plus Tia Carrere is, to quote our hero, a real "babe" and makes
the film even more pleasant to watch. The cast of WAYNE’S WORLD
also includes Brian Doyle-Murray, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael DeLuise, Colleen
Camp, Donna Dixon, Chris Farley, Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper and the ever-brilliant
Ed O'Neill.

Paramount
Home Entertainment has made WAYNE’S WORLD available on DVD in a
1.78:1 wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement
for 16:9 displays. Paramount provides WAYNE’S WORLD with a really
nice transfer that makes this modestly budgeted comedy shine. The image
on the DVD is sharp and well defined- appearing superior to all previous
video incarnations. Colors tend to be fairly vibrant and the flesh tones
are appealing. There is a lot of colored lighting in the film; none of
which causes any chroma noise or fuzziness. Blacks are solid and shadow
detail is more than respectable. The film element used for the transfer
is relatively free from blemishes, although it can be a bit grainy at
times. Dual layer authoring keeps digital compression artifacts well concealed.

For
this release, WAYNE’S WORLD is offered with a Dolby Digital 5.1
channel soundtrack. For the most part, this seems to be a fairly straightforward
porting of the original Dolby Surround stems. Additionally, one has to
remember that WAYNE’S WORLD is a comedy from the early nineties,
so there isn’t much inventiveness in the sound design. Most of the stereo
imaging comes from the film’s music and occasional sound effects. The
surround channels add ambience and musical fill; with the occasional discrete
effect dropped in to remind one that they are listening to a 5.1 mix.
Dialogue is very cleanly rendered and there is a very good level of intelligibility.
The film’s music sounds quite good, maintaining a high fidelity sound
and no real sense of compression. English and French Dolby Surround soundtracks
are also encoded onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.

Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the DVD's cleverly designed
interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, as well as a few supplemental features.
Director Penelope Spheeris provides a running audio commentary that proves
to be almost as entertaining as the film itself. Also included on the
DVD are more than twenty minutes of new cast/crew interviews that are
also pretty entertaining. A theatrical trailer closes out the DVD’s supplements.

WAYNE’S
WORLD is a goofy good comedy that
retains almost every bit of the charm it had when it opened in 1992. Paramount’s
DVD looks and sounds just fine, making it something that fans will want
to add to their comedy collections.